Chinese traditional culture. Social order in traditional Chinese societies
is founded on five fundamental relationships (wu-lun) of Confucianism:
emperor–subject, father–son, husband–wife, elder–younger, and friend–
friend. Four of these five cardinal relationships are hierarchical in
nature. Individual loyalty and obedience to the authorities are viewed
as the prerequisites of social harmony (Bond and Hwang, 1987 ).
Nowadays, Chinese people differ greatly in their degrees of
modernization, education, wealth, and values. Societal modernization
has weakened the foundation of respect for authority in contemporary
Chinese societies to varying degrees. Therefore, the Chinese differ in
their identification with traditional values such as respect for autho-
rity. Unquestioned obedience to authority may not be considered as a
‘‘taken for granted’’ value by all Chinese, especially for the younger
generations with higher education (Cheng and Farh, 2001 ). Empirical
studies have already shown the variance of traditionality within
Chinese societies and its regulating effect on people’s working atti-
tudes and behaviors (e.g. Farh, Earley, and Lin, 1997 ; Farh, Hackett,
and Liang, 2007 ; Hui, Lee, and Rousseau, 2004 ).
Our general prediction here is that individuals who identify with
traditional Chinese cultural values (e.g. submission to authority) are
more likely to respond positively to PL than are those who do not.
Two of three studies examining the moderating role of individual
traditionality found general support for this proposition. For example,
Chenget al.( 2004 ) reported that in terms of the three psychological
responses to PL (identification, compliance, and gratitude), authori-
tarian leadership had no effects on subordinates with low tradition-
ality, but had positive effects on those with high traditionality. Farh
et al.( 2006 ) found that authoritarianism did not lower satisfaction
with the leader for those who endorsed traditional Chinese values,
but it had a strong negative effect for those who did not. Chenget al.
( 2003 ), however, failed to find the moderating effect of traditionality
in a sample from the Chinese mainland. In summary, there is good
evidence that subordinates’ responses to authoritarianism are contin-
gent on their individual values for traditionality, but the findings have
not been entirely consistent across studies.
Subordinate dependence on the leader for resources
Besides traditionality, the dependence of subordinates on their super-
visors for resources may also affect subordinates’ responses to PL
182 Jiing-lih Farhet al.